The Vancouver Canucks signed Stewart to an entry-level contract Tuesday and [SIZE="7"]general manager Jim Benning said the team hopes to turn the 6-foot-4, 216-pound defenceman into a winger.[/size]

“We drafted him as a defenceman,” Benning said. “This year, he played some wing and some defence. I think what we are going to try and do is develop him as a winger. He is a real good skater for his size, he gets in on the forecheck and plays physical. He’ll stick up for his teammates, he’s a hard-nosed kid who will do what needs to be done.”

Stewart just completed his second full season with the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western Hockey League. He had five goals, 11 points and 114 penalty minutes in 66 games this past season.

The Canucks selected Stewart 186th overall in the seventh round of the 2014 draft.

Stewart, a Calgary native who turns 20 in August, was born deaf and needed several surgeries as a child to restore his hearing. As a result, he did not start playing hockey until he was 12 years old.

“He is the type of kid that if there’s any way to figure out how to be a NHL player, he is going to do it,” Benning said. “He’s serious about wanting to be a player. He is going to leave no stone unturned to try and make it as a player. I have seen through the years kids that have this sort of intensity and they kind of figure out a way.”

Benning said Stewart will start next season with Utica.

“We signed him to a contract, he’ll start off in Utica and we’ll see how that goes and go from there. He’s a fantastic kid and a total team player.”

In related news,

While the Canucks signed Stewart, they have not yet inked defensive prospect Jordan Subban to a contract. The Canucks must sign Subban to a deal by the end of the month to prevent him from re-entering the draft.

Benning said he remains confident a deal will get done.

“We are in negotiations trying to get something figured out for Jordan,” Benning said. “It’s like give and take, we’re trying to get that figured out. I’m confident that we’ll get it done.”

Subban, 20, just completed his fourth season with the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League. He had 25 goals and 52 points in 63 regular-season games. The Canucks selected him in the fourth round (115th overall) in the 2013 draft.

I remember Botch tweeting after the last few rounds of last year's draft that Benning was disgusted with the picks and was waiting for certain guys contracts to run out as opposed to firing them. Somehow I now get the feeling all of those contracts are getting renewed...

Cole Cassels seems like a player who would be propped up significantly by old school TV analysts. High character, leaves it all on the ice, never gives up, captain material, a champion at all levels, etc etc.

He's coming over to play for Chicoutimi next season. It will be interesting to see how he does. His MHL totals for last season are pretty underwhelming for a skill player, but his U-17 and U-18 championship numbers are good.

I like what I have seen from Jasek the most out of our late round picks.

“I read all the scouting reports ahead of time just like everybody else,” Yannetti began. “I look at Red Line Report, Central Scouting, ISS, Bob McKenzie and Craig Button. Whether or not I agree with them, whether or not I think they have merit, any time you read something, it can help you. It’s sort of like conversations with Dean [Lombardi] sometimes. Even when we don’t see eye to eye on something, I still come away and adapt my way of thinking. I have weighed a different way of thinking.”

wow who would've thought that having different opinions was a good thing?

“Like, if you went Russian, European, Russian, and European. With the uncertainty of a Russian contract or a transfer agreement – or the fact you don’t have complete control – you might not go four Europeans in a row,” he explained. “Just like, you probably wouldn’t go four or five college guys in a row because you would run into the same situation of age distribution. I’m not saying it would, but it would be something that would at least come into mind where I would be thinking three or four years down the line – or thinking with the team’s development group in mind. The second thing that would play into it would be the round. In the third round and fourth round – and especially the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds – I would probably think ‘project.’ When you’re talking fourth to seventh round, you’re thinking about guys that need to be developed.”A relevant point here would be Chaz Reddekopp, a 6-foot-4 defenseman the Kings selected in the seventh round this year.“Traditionally, you’re thinking, ‘For Reddekopp to go in the seventh round, there has to be a reason. He can move the puck, he’s big, he’s strong, he’s tough, and he plays hard. He is a prototypical guy for that spot, so what’s the reason? How can a guy like that go in the seventh?’ Well, his skating needs to improve. It’s simple. There is a deficiency. Right now, you look at Reddekopp, and without improving his skating, he won’t be able to play in the NHL,” explained Yannetti. “So there’s the development pick. And developmentally, it is easier to have a guy picked in the fourth to the seventh round in North America where you can have your hands on him all the time. So I wouldn’t want to go Euro, Euro, Euro later in the draft because you now have three guys that are development picks that you probably don’t have development access to. I wouldn’t make a blanket statement saying ‘I wouldn’t do it.’ That would get into bias and one-dimensional thinking, but it would seriously weigh on my mind. That might skew my thinking into taking geographical area over player.”

makes a hell of a lot of sense. same thing goes for size, strength, etc. find guys with one deficiency that made them fall and develop them. don't draft a player because he's gone through adversity in his life.

also here's part 2 where yanetti talks about the second rounder they took. reminds me an awful lot of gustav forsling in that he's playing in the top tier men's league at a young age. oops we traded our guy away lol http://mayorsmanor.com/2015/07/dev-camp ... d-rounder/